Apparatus and Method for Dynamic Diversity Based Upon Receiver-Side Assessment of Link Quality

1. An apparatus comprising: a first receive path associated with a first antenna; a second receive path associated with a second antenna; a link quality assessor that assesses a link quality of at least one of the first and second receive paths using at least one link characterization value other than physical signal parameters; and a diversity configuration selector that selects at least one of the first and second receive paths to change from a first antenna diversity mode to a second antenna diversity mode based on the at least one link characterization value.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first antenna diversity mode is a no diversity mode and the second antenna diversity mode is a full diversity mode.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first antenna diversity mode is a switched diversity mode and the second diversity mode is a full diversity mode.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the diversity configuration selector selectively activates at least one switch to select the at least one of the first and second receive paths to change from a first antenna diversity mode to a second antenna diversity mode.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the link quality assessor assesses the link quality of at least one of the first and second receive paths based on a signal strength of a wireless signal received via the respective receive paths in addition to the at least one link characterization value other than physical signal parameters.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the link quality assessor assesses the link quality of at least one of the first and second receive paths based on one parameter detected by a modem detector that processes a wireless signal received via at least one of the first and second receive paths in addition to the at least one link characterization value other than physical signal parameters.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the parameters detected by the modem detector include at least one of soft decisions captured at the input of a Viterbi detector, internal parameters of the Viterbi detector, or disagreement between surviving signal paths in the Viterbi detector.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the link quality assessor assesses the link quality of at least one of the first and second receive paths based on a link characterization value generated using at least one medium access control (MAC) layer parameter.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the at least one MAC layer parameter includes a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) retry sub-field in a MAC header.

10. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the at least one MAC layer parameter includes a CRC check result.

11. A method comprising: receiving a wireless signal via a first receive path associated with a first antenna; receiving the wireless signal via a second receive path associated with a second antenna; analyzing a link quality of at least one of the first and second receive paths using at least one link characterization value other than physical signal parameters; and selecting at least one of the first and second receive paths to change from a first antenna diversity mode to a second antenna diversity mode based on the link characterization value.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the first antenna diversity mode is a no diversity mode and the second antenna diversity mode is a full diversity mode.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the first antenna diversity mode is a switched diversity mode and the second diversity mode is a full diversity mode.

14. The method of claim 11 , further comprising selectively activating at least one switch to select the at least one of the first and second receive paths to change from a first antenna diversity mode to a second antenna diversity mode.

15. The method of claim 11 , wherein analyzing the link quality includes analyzing the link quality based on a signal strength of the wireless signal received via the respective receive paths in addition to the at least one link characterization value other than physical signal parameters.

16. The method of claim 11 , wherein analyzing the link quality includes analyzing the link quality of at least one of the first and second receive paths based on at least one parameter detected by a modem detector that processes a wireless signal received via at least one of the first and second receive paths in addition to the at least one link characterization value other than physical signal parameters.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the parameters detected by the modem detector include at least one of soft decisions captured at the input of a Viterbi detector, internal parameters of the Viterbi detector, or disagreement between surviving signal paths in the Viterbi detector.

18. The method of claim 11 , wherein analyzing the link quality includes analyzing the link quality of at least one of the first and second receive paths based on a link characterization value generated using at least one medium access control (MAC) layer parameter.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the at least one MAC layer parameter includes a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) retry sub-field in a MAC header.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein the at least one MAC layer parameter includes a CRC check result.

21. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the diversity configuration selector powers off the second receive path to operate in accordance with the no diversity mode and powers on bath the first and second receive pats to operate in accordance wit the full diversity mode.

22. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the link quality assessor generates the link characterization value based on at least one medium access control (MAC) layer parameter; and the diversity configuration selector changes from the no diversity mode to the full diversity mode based on the link characterization value.

23. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the link quality assessor generates the link characterization value based on at least one medium access control (MAC) layer parameter; and the diversity configuration selector determines to change from the full diversity mode to the no diversity mode based on the at least one MAC layer parameter and selects one of the first and second receive paths for use in the no diversity mode based on one or more physical layer parameters associated with the first and second receive paths.

24. The method of claim 12 , wherein the diversity configuration selector powers off the second receive path to operate in accordance with the no diversity mode and powers on both the first and second receive paths to operate in accordance with the full diversity mode.

25. The method of claim 12 , wherein the link quality assessor generates the link characterization value based on at least one medium access control (MAC) layer parameter; and the diversity configuration selector changes from the no diversity mode to the full diversity mode based on the link characterization value.

26. The method of claim 12 , wherein the link quality assessor generates the link characterization value based on at least one medium access control (MAC) layer parameter; and the diversity configuration selector determines to change from the full diversity mode to the no diversity mode based on the at least one MAC layer parameter and selects one of the first and second receive paths for use in the no diversity mode based on physical layer parameters associated with the first and second receive paths.